Robert Stuart Butterworth
Robert Stuart Butterworth
Embedded Files
Butterworth, Robert Stuart, was born in 1918,5,25, he died in 1945,03,19 in Near Merklinde Germany. Went to Glebe CI for high school education, played multiple sports including hockey and rugby. ( We found his name on the senior hockey team). Roberts' religion is Anglican. Robert’s Current address is 47 Patterson Ottawa. Robert’s parents, Father Ernest Albert Reynolds Butterworth born on 8 Apr 1876, died on 6 Oct 1958 at the age of 82. Mother born on 1 Feb 1876, died on 2 Aug 1965, at the age of 89. Brother Ernest DOUGLAS Butterworth, born on 1 Apr 1909, died on 10 Jan 2005 at the age of 95. Roberts and his wife Georgina Best Butterworth were married on 1943 Dec 2, their son Robert Stuart Butterworth Jr. was born on 1944 Oct 6.
Flying Officer (F/O) Butterworth, Service number J/38675, officially enlisted in the military and began training some time in 1940. Butterworth did not have a job pre-enlistment. He finished his training in 1942, joining No. 405 Squadron of the RCAF. Butterworth was a Bomb Aimer on an Avro III Lancaster, designated PB451. Butterworth made it to the rank of F/O ( roughly equivalent to a Lieutenant today) before his untimely death, exactly 50 days before the end of the war in Europe.
During Butterworth's last operation on March 18, 1945, a raid was carried out on Germany. In this raid, they ended up dropping 1,081 tons of bombs on the surrounding area, wiping out 62% of the built-up land. The British post-war survey stated, “The Ruhrstahl steelworks and the Mannesmann tube factory were severely damaged.” Unfortunately, out of the 324 aircraft used in this raid, eight of them were lost in an unfortunate accident supposedly caused by a Halifax RG529, although this has not been completely confirmed nor denied; this is the best explanation available. Some people speculate it may have also been a PB451, but unfortunately, there's still no hard evidence. Of these eight aircraft, Butterworth was found inside one of them, dying at 26 on March 19, 1945, and now he forever rests in Merklinde, Germany, with his inscription reading, “AS WE LOVED HIM, SO WE MISS HIM.”
Primary Source Documents :https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/canadian-virtual-war-memorial/detail/2042619?Robert%20Stuart%20Butterworth
Works Cited
Veterans Affairs Canada: Language selection, https://www.veterans.gc.ca/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
CASPIR — Home, https://caspir.warplane.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
collishaw / FrontPage, http://collishaw.pbworks.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission | CWGC, https://www.cwgc.org/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
collishaw / FrontPage, http://collishaw.pbworks.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Presentations and videos with engaging visuals for hybrid teams | Prezi Present, https://prezi.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Losses Database, https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
RAFCommands 2.0 – The meeting place for RAF researchers, https://www.rafcommands.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Free Family Tree, Genealogy, Family History, and DNA Testing, https://www.myheritage.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Aviation Safety Network, https://asn.flightsafety.org/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
WARTIMES.ca, https://wartimes.ca/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
RAFCommands 2.0 – The meeting place for RAF researchers, https://www.rafcommands.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Back to Normandy, https://www.backtonormandy.org/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
RAFCommands 2.0 – The meeting place for RAF researchers, https://www.rafcommands.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
CASPIR — Home, https://caspir.warplane.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Collection search, https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/. Accessed 27 October 2024.
“405 Long Range Patrol Squadron - Royal Canadian Air Force.” Canada.ca, 23 May 2018, https://www.canada.ca/en/air-force/corporate/squadrons/405-squadron.html. Accessed 27 October 2024.
Lockyer, Malcolm. “History.” 405 Squadron Association, http://www.405sqn.com/history.html. Accessed 27 October 2024.
The biographies appearing on this website have been written by students, roughly the same age as the soldiers they are studying, using primary source evidence from Library and Archives Canada, in addition to primary source documents from The Virtual War Memorial on veterans.ca. We welcome any corrections or additions you may have to these biographies.
'If we do preserve it, we honour them, and when we in our turn pass on, we will know that behind us lives a generation of free men and of free women to be the keepers of this great heritage of ours - Canada.'
- Ian A. McPhee, former student at GCI, 1937.
Glebe Collegiate Institute
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
Page updated
Report abuse